Authoress Note: Welcome to Chapter 8 of Jar of Hearts. I want to thank those who have left reviews for this story. It truly does mean a lot to me that you guys are enjoying this story. I have taken my time with each chapter to make sure that it is good enough for a read. If I miss anything in editing, I do apologize I'm only human. I miss things due to being dyslexic. I hope that you guys enjoy this next part. Without further ado Chapter 8. ENJOY!

Chapter 8

Ruby served Mac her normal cup of coffee that she got before she went off to work in the morning. "You look like hell." She commented on how her friend looked. She was always concerned about how much sleep Mac was getting, usually it wasn't enough sleep. She knew that Mac had a tendency of working on paintings into the wee hours of the morning when she couldn't sleep and when things with her brother got out of hand.

Mac scoffed a bit and rubbed her face. "Thanks for that Ruby." She said tiredly. "Leroy was being stubborn last night. He came home again drunk."

Ruby sighed. "Have you tried to hide the liquor bottle?" She should have known that Leroy would have gotten the bottle again and would have hit it fairly hard again that it would probably have caused major trouble for her.

"Don't you think I have?" She asked, as she took a hold of the coffee cup before bringing it to her lips taking a sip of the hot liquid. She shook her head and put the cup down. "He's stubbornly thinking that something is going to happen to me."

"And what about you and Graham have you figured out what you are going to do about that?" Ruby asked curiously, leaning against the bar.

Mac shook her head. "He's off limits. I'm not going to lose my job and probably the roof over my head and being known as a trollop. I'm not going to be known as the woman who steals the mayor's boy toy."

"Well, you wouldn't be stealing him if he was going to you willingly." Ruby pointed out, making it a good point if the man came onto her that it wouldn't be a bad thing.

Mac shook her head again. She couldn't allow herself to do that and she wouldn't allow herself to do that and it wasn't going to happen either.

A violent shake disrupted them from their talk.

"What the..." Ruby said, pushing away from the bar table.

"You got me."

"We should take a look." Ruby said, grabbing a hold of Mac's arm.

OUAT

Regina was trying to do crowd control thanks to the whole entire town being there at the mines. "Everyone! Step back, please!" She yelled trying to get their attention.

"Is that a crater?" Ruby asked, nudging her best friend, Mac, in the ribs.

Mac couldn't help but chuckle at how Ruby was acting.

"No, there were tunnels. Old mines." Marco explained to Ruby. "Something collapsed."

"Sheriff, set up a police perimeter. Marco, why don't you help with the fire department?" Regina looked at Emma. "Miss Swan, this is now official town business. You're free to go."

"Well, actually, I work for the town now." Emma said sheepishly. It was true she actually did work for the town now thanks to Graham offering her the job.

"She's my new deputy." Graham told Regina.

Regina forced a smile onto her lips. "They say the Mayor's always the last to know."

"It's in my budget."

"Indeed." Regina said, nodding her head curtly. "Deputy, why don't you make yourself useful and help with crowd control?" She said walking away and stood in front of the crowd to try and deal with crowd control again. "People of Storybrooke, don't be alarmed. We've always known this area was honeycombed with old mining tunnels. But fear not. I'm going to undertake a project to make this area safe... to rehabilitate it into city use. We will bulldoze it, collapse it, pave it."

Henry came out of the crowd. "Pave it? What if there's something down there?" He knew that there just had to be something down there.

"Henry. What are you doing here?" Regina asked in shock.

"What's down there?"

"Nothing. Now step back. In fact, everyone! Please, please step back, thank you." She said before picking up a piece of glass up off of the ground and putting it into her pocket.

Henry noticed her doing that. "What was that?"

"Henry, enough. Listen. This is a safety issue. Wait in the car."

Mac put her hand on Henry's shoulder. "Come on Henry." She said softly, taking Henry with her.

Henry walked with her. "I know that there is something down there." He complained to her.

"Henry, why do you think that there is something down there?" Mac asked, looking at him in concern. She truly was worried about him. He was beginning to act stranger and stranger as time went on. She didn't know how much longer Archie was going to be able to handle this fake world of his. Let alone her, she had listened to his stories and well granted she did find them integrating, but this was becoming to the point of really pushing it.

"Because there has to be something there. There had to be something that had to cause the ground to shake."

"It's a mine , Henry. Nothing more nothing less. My father died down in those mines. I have heard the stories that Leroy told me of our father and how he died down there." Mac said, shaking her head, her voice filled with a tone that Henry never heard.

Henry looked at Mac. He never thought that Mac would be like this, such a non-believer in what he was saying at that moment, but right now, he really needed her to believe him. He got out of his mother's car.

"Henry... what are you."

Henry grabbed Mac's arm and dragged her towards where Archie was. "Hey, Archie! Over here."

OUAT

Henry, Emma, Archie, and Mac all stood next to the police car.

"This requires all of Operation Cobra. The three of you."

"I didn't realize I was in Operation Cobra." Archie said, his eyes growing wide.

"Of course you are. You know everything." Henry said, smiling looking at Archie.

"And I didn't know I was part of Operation Cobra either." Mac said, rubbing her arm shyly.

Henry nodded his head. "We can't let her do this. What if there's something down there?"

"They're just some old tunnels." Emma explained to Henry.

"That just happened to collapse right after you get here?" Henry asked, looking at his real mother. "You're changing things. You're weakening the curse."

"That's not what is happening."

"Yes, it is! Did you do anything different today? Cause something made this happen."

Regina walked up to the four of them. "Henry, I told you to wait in the car. Deputy, do your job."

"Come on Henry." Mac said, taking Henry's arm leading him away from Regina.

OUAT

Archie looked at his patient, Mac who was nervously messing with her hem of the black shirt she wore. He was deep in thought.

Marco came into the room. He saw Mac in the room. "Mac."

MacKenzie looked up at him. She quietly got up from her seat. "He's been like this since I came in for my appointment." She told him softly.

Marco nodded his head. "Go on."

Mac nodded her head and headed out of the room leaving Marco to deal with Archie.

OUAT

Mac was on her way home from work when she saw Henry going off towards the old mines. She turned on her heels quickly. "Henry!"

Henry stopped at the entrance of the mine.

"What are you doing?" Mac asked, stopping in front of the mine.

"Getting the proof that I need."

"What? What proof? What are you talking about?"

"Come with me? Please?"

Mac looked back towards town. She couldn't just leave Henry to go alone. So she had to go with him. She looked down at him and nodded her head. "Okay."

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This is the end of Chapter 8. I hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter. I know that there was a lot of bouncing around in this chapter, but I promise you that there is more to come of the bouncing around. It seems that with this series there is a lot of bouncing around. I hope that it turned out well. Please leave a review and let me know what you think. I'm going to try to update soon with a brand new chapter. Until next time.